*nix is an operating system begot in the golden years of computing. Unfortunately, it never really made it into the mainstream. Actually, it is fortunate for the vast majority of people as it isn't really that friendly of an environment for daily use. It's great if you are a programmer, but if you don't really care to use the command line, it's far better that you stay in the Eloi mindset and stop reading this article. I, for one, enjoy rolling up my sleeves and getting under the hood of the computer to see what exactly is happening. *nix is an excellent way of doing that and I selected Linux as my starting point to step into the world of the Morlock.

Linux is perhaps my favorite toy of all. It allows me to do almost everything that I want to with my computer. It's largest weak point for me is a lack of gaming abilities. But bad things would likely occur if I could play games on Linux so let's hope it stays unfriendly in that area. Some people think that Linux is a challenger for Windows for desktop mastery. This thought is ridiculous. It's years from being a contender...Linux currently owns only 0.25% of the desktop market. Not exactly a threat. Why is this? Several reasons come to mind...it's not really an integrated environment like Windows. Cutting and Pasting aren't even close to Windows' abilities, installation frequently causes dependency issues that generate cryptic messages to the novice, the command line mode is far more developed than the X windowing environment, there's nobody to help you when things go awry...and they will. That's just a short list, hopefully novices will stay away and not listen to the Open Source Community's hype about Linux' impending domination of the world market.

That said, Linux is an excellent toy (read 'tool' for corporate folk) for the developer. Want to become adept at the *nix environment? Get rid of your Windows desktop and start using Linux. That's it. Soon, you'll begin to miss simple things in life like chat clients and decent email and begin to search solve problems. Maybe you'll want to change the background on your desktop or the sound scheme. Have fun! Brace yourself for a huge learning curve when you start modularizing your kernel or convert from OpenGL to DRI for your video card. You'll likely spend a month at the command line from breaking something (like I did). But learn you will and this knowledge lends itself to all computing environments, not just *nix. You see, the innards of a computer from a Palm Pilot to a Solaris Server all work the same. Once you have an abstract view of how it ticks then troubleshooting, developing, modifying, etc. can happen at a faster pace.